Chapter 234

Qian Youyu sat on the ground with a fist-sized piece of gold in his arms, looking miserable. A circle of people surrounded him, all workers from his construction team.

Sun Demao squatted beside him, beaming with joy, chewing on a piece of dog-tail grass, drawing characters on the ground with a stone, and occasionally popping out a sentence: "I say, Old Qian, do you really think your fate is better than mine?"

The excavator had already turned off its engine, nesting in the middle of a pile of yellow dirt like an old ox. The large pit that had been dug was crowded with people, holding hoes and all kinds of tools, their eyes wide as ox eggs, searching for dog-head gold in the dirt. Occasionally someone would curse: "Damn your mother, you stepped on my foot!"

Then there would be a response: "Damn your grandmother, so what if I stepped on you?"

Those at the bottom of the pit were all people from Laoyingzui Village; people from other villages didn't dare to go down and only searched in the dirt that had been dug out.

The whole scene was chaotic and a mess. Adults and children, all eighteen kinds of weapons were brought into play. Even Zhao Half-Immortal had a rope tied around his waist by his old wife and was lowered to the bottom of the pit, lying behind a pile of loosened dirt, carefully sifting through it, terrified that the gold nugget would slip away from under his eyes.

Dog-head gold, as the name suggests, is the size of a dog's head, though it doesn't look like a dog's head. This thing is a treasure left by heaven in the human world, rarely seen, and mostly just a legend in the world, with no one having seen its true face.

I wanted to take the dog-head gold from Qian Youyu's hands, but he held it tightly and refused to let go. There was no joy in his eyes, only dullness and helplessness.

Qian Youyu was a smart man. Since dog-head gold had appeared at his construction site, the fate of his site would be the same as Sun Demao's. In this way, no one would see a future, except for fantasies!

Qian Youyu finally let go. I weighed it; it was heavy and felt substantial.

Gold is gold, heavy!

Guo Wei turned to the edge of the pit, saw the people in the pit cheering and shouting, and stood above, shouting: "Fellow villagers, pay attention to safety, don't be chaotic."

No one paid attention to him. Silver hoes flew at the bottom of the pit, and the noise was deafening. The mud dug out was like a mouse digging a hole, piled softly to one side, only to be trampled solid by the people behind, repeating the cycle.

"Please, fellow villagers, stop your hands and come up from the pit," Guo Wei shouted at the top of his lungs.

Someone raised their head and replied: "Why go up? When the police come, it'll become the state's again."

The crowd erupted in an uproar, and the tools in their hands were used even more happily. Last time, when stone coffins appeared at Sun Demao's construction site, Laoyingzui had tried every method but couldn't get a share of the spoils. This time, when dog-head gold appeared, the people of Laoyingzui became obedient. Before anyone came to interfere, they would strike first; if they got it, they got it!

Guo Wei shouted a few times, and seeing it had no effect, he smiled bitterly at me and said: "These people, have they all gone crazy?"

I answered with a smile: "The people haven't gone crazy, it's the thing that caused the trouble." I pointed to the dog-head gold in Qian Youyu's arms, helpless.

"What should we do? We can't just let them grab it crazily. If another one comes out, wouldn't that be setting a fire?" Guo Wei was worried and miserable.

I watched Hao Qiang driving his sidecar motorcycle over in the distance and comforted Guo Wei, saying: "Don't worry, wealth is important, but life is more important. I don't believe they aren't afraid of death."

Guo Wei looked at me hesitantly. After Hao Qiang parked the motorcycle, I pointed to the pistol hanging behind his butt and said: "Take it out, fire a few shots."

Hao Qiang didn't hesitate to pull the gun from under his butt, clicked it to cock it, and asked me: "Really shoot? Where should I shoot?"

I glared at him and said: "Shoot at the sky! Where else do you want to shoot?"

Hao Qiang raised his gun and fired two shots into the sky. As soon as the gunshots rang out, several armed police who had been guarding Sun Demao's construction site ran over, holding dark gun barrels, all aimed at the crowd in the pit.

The originally noisy crowd was scared out of their wits by the gunshots. Only when they saw several pitch-black gun barrels pointed directly at the bottom of the pit did they cry and scream, climbing up for their lives. This chaos caused people to trample over each other; young women and wives couldn't care about anything else, crawling up on the backs of the men for their lives.

The rope tied around Zhao Half-Immortal's waist was squeezed off in the rush and was long gone. Before he could even stand up, he was squeezed against the dirt wall by a stream of people, his entire face pressed into the mud like a pancake, unable to move a bit.

When everyone at the bottom of the pit had climbed up, I called the village cadres and scattered them around the pit like beans, surrounding the dirt pit tightly.

The scene was controlled, and I had to report the situation to my superiors. I consulted Guo Wei's opinion: "Secretary Guo, you have to report the situation to the county."

Guo Wei thought for a moment and said: "You should be the one to call, you can explain it more clearly."

I didn't decline and dialed County Magistrate Liu's phone. As soon as it connected, I heard County Magistrate Liu's hearty laughter: "Chen Feng, your news is quite well-informed. I just received the notice, and your call came."

I asked strangely: "Someone reported to you first?"

County Magistrate Liu still laughed heartily and said: "This isn't a report, it's an order from the superior. Your new government's construction site can start construction, the alert is lifted."

When I heard this, I was both pleasantly surprised and disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised that the new government relocation project could be restarted, and disappointed that there were only eighteen stone coffins under the ground; the fantasy that there were treasures worth a country buried under the ground was completely shattered.

"Town Head Chen, you have made a great contribution this time. The Provincial Committee has already issued a document to commend you—it's a huge piece of good news! The front page of today's provincial newspaper reports your excellent deeds in protecting national cultural relics." County Magistrate Liu was full of joy, but remained serious and earnest: "Chunshan County making the front page of the provincial newspaper is the first time since the founding of the country."

I hesitated for a moment and said: "County Magistrate, that's not the matter I'm reporting."

County Magistrate Liu paused on the phone: "Oh, what other matter do you have to report?"

I said: "A situation occurred at the water plant construction site; a piece of dog-head gold was dug out."

County Magistrate Liu seemed not to believe his ears and asked me: "Dog-head gold? Dug out of the construction site?"

I answered affirmatively, saying that the scene had already been protected and we were waiting for the County Committee's instructions.

County Magistrate Liu pondered for a moment and said: "You did well, I will send the County Public Security Bureau down immediately."

After hanging up the phone, I looked at Sun Demao, who was chewing on dog-tail grass, with a smile. I kicked a small pebble by my feet, took a pack of cigarettes from my pocket, pulled one out, threw it to Sun Demao, and said: "Why are you still sitting there? Go start construction."

Sun Demao was stunned. He stood up, patted the mud off his butt, tilted his neck to look at me, and smiled bitterly: "Town Head Chen is joking. If I go to start construction, won't they just shoot me?" He pointed to the armed police in the distance and suddenly opened his mouth in astonishment. The armed police who had been guarding the construction site had all withdrawn and were climbing into a military vehicle.

"They... they've withdrawn." He started to stutter, his face flushed red, and he ran away in a panic. He didn't expect to be tripped by a stone under his feet and fell flat on his back.

He climbed up from the ground, not bothering to pat the dirt off his body, and ran to the construction site for his life.

I looked at his short, hunched back, and my eyes moistened. This peasant contractor who had crawled out of the mud had bet his life and fortune on the Suxi Town construction site. If he lost this bet, it would be almost like a fairy tale for Sun Demao to climb back up again.

"Can we start construction?" Guo Wei looked at me suspiciously: "Why did all the armed police leave?"

"The order came from the province; the construction site no longer has the value of cultural relic excavation and can resume construction," I said, repeating County Magistrate Liu's words.

"This is a good thing." Guo Wei closed his eyes happily and let out a long sigh of relief.

"There's an even better thing," I said: "The province has decided to allocate three million yuan for the construction of the new Suxi Town, as a reward for our contribution to protecting cultural relics."

When Guo Wei heard this, he trembled with excitement, his face flushed, and he leaned close to my ear and whispered: "You kid really are a lucky general."

I smiled faintly and didn't say anything. Qian Youyu's construction site had to stop construction less than a day after starting, and Sun Demao's construction site, which had been stopped for more than a month, could resume construction. The ups and downs of these changes made me feel that the drama was truly too intense.

Qian Youyu, sitting on the ground, stared blankly ahead, his eyes full of confusion.

I squatted down to comfort him: "Boss Qian, look, Boss Sun also waited for more than a month. Good things come slowly. We're not in a hurry."

Qian Youyu sighed and said: "I'm just in a hurry, but can I take a stone and hit the sky? Life and death are determined by fate, and wealth is in the hands of heaven."

Guo Wei immediately followed up: "That's right, that's right, look at it more openly. It's nothing more than a matter of time. Wait a while, and good things will come."

I called Hao Qiang over and wanted to take the dog-head gold from Qian Youyu's arms. Qian Youyu held it and wouldn't let go even if he died, muttering: "That's ten million yuan, I was counting on this piece of gold. If you take it away, aren't you taking my life?"

I laughed: "Don't talk about ten million, even if it were one hundred million, if it belongs to the state, it belongs to the state. Do you still want to use it to offset your losses? Boss Qian, give it to Station Chief Hao."

Qian Youyu let go very reluctantly, and watched Hao Qiang take the gold, tears dripping from his eyes.

My heart tightened. I couldn't bear to see men cry, so I turned away, looking at Zhao Deliang's grave on the distant hillside. The new grave had already become the tomb of an old friend; looking back, the spring flowers had withered and the autumn moon had faded!

I pulled Guo Wei to the side and whispered: "Secretary Guo, I feel there might be a gold mine under the ground."

Guo Wei stared at me suspiciously and laughed: "You must be daydreaming, right? A piece of dog-head gold, and you fantasize about a gold mine underground? You should go write books, your imagination is so rich."

I squatted down, grabbed a handful of mud, rubbed it in my hands, and threw it into the distance.

I thought to myself, whether there is one or not, I must invite geological experts to survey it!